Pets have always been the Hunter thing. There are hundreds of beasts out there for us to tame and more are being added every patch. Whether you like it or not, Hunters are archers with pets. Even as Survival and Marksmanship in Cataclysm and before that pets were a big thing and they will remain being our thing for this expansion at least. The route blizzard is going now is make pets and beasts more and more of our flavor and in terms of looks and such, that is absolutely fine. I have stated numerous times that mechanic related issues like for example the target switching and travel time are perfectly valid and that I agree with those complaints. But I don't see how this summoned hawk is a bad thing compared to say cobra shot instead dealing 10% more damage or something like that (random example). Yes it's guaranteed damage, I get it. That's a mechanic related complaint. But if you dislike pets, guardians and the whole beast theme so much you are playing the wrong class.

I wish our 4 piece was something more balanced and interesting. The 2 piece however I think is quite neat. If it does work like Dire Beast I don't see it causing too many issues aside from target switching. Looking at the abilities of the bosses in tier 15 I have the feeling that's only going to become a major issue on two of the bosses.

I agree we have a pet yes. The hunter class description stated he can control wild beasts way back when WoW was first announced. But just in the last two expansions have they really made pets have a bigger role in the hunter class and giving them special abilities and adding even more to the whole pet scheme (Dire Beasts and Stampede). But saying pets has always been what the hunter class is about and a big part of the strat to the class is incorrect, first and foremost Hunters are a range physical class with pew pew bows and arrows. For Surv and MM pets are just a static dps ability imo, you set them and forget them. I have always played a range class that has some sort of range weapon like a bow or gun in MMOs. I have stuck with my hunter since wow was in beta. I am playing my favorite in WoW so just because I hate pets which is a very small part for hunters (excluding BM of course) does not mean I picked the wrong class.

If blizzard updated the pet AI with all these new pet summon skills hunters have now I would not be as grumpy about this new 2pc summon pet. Yes, I understand we dont know if it will be a dot like AMoCs but I have a feeling it will be like dire beasts.

GC just posted on the PTR forums (within the past hour) clarifying all the set bonuses, including the hunter bonuses:

Hunter
• The Hunter 2T15 bonus is a chance to summon a Thunderhawk. That Thunderhawk will assist you, and will always cast 5x Lightning Bolts for 16k to 24k Nature damage. Its damage will scale with BM mastery, and will not scale with Survival mastery. However, the proc chances (which are Real PPM) vary by spec: 0.7/min for BM, 1/min for MM, 1.2/min for Surv.
• The Hunter 4T15 bonus is affected by Survival’s mastery, cannot trigger Wild Quiver, and procs at a rate of 3 RealPPM.

I don't understand the Real PPM system well enough to comment on this. Odd that the thunderhawk casts lightning bolts for nature damage, but scales with BM's mastery and not SV's.

Hunter
• The Hunter 2T15 bonus is a chance to summon a Thunderhawk. That Thunderhawk will assist you, and will always cast 5x Lightning Bolts for 16k to 24k Nature damage. Its damage will scale with BM mastery, and will not scale with Survival mastery. However, the proc chances (which are Real PPM) vary by spec: 0.7/min for BM, 1/min for MM, 1.2/min for Surv.
• The Hunter 4T15 bonus is affected by Survival’s mastery, cannot trigger Wild Quiver, and procs at a rate of 3 RealPPM.

I strongly disagree with you. I don't want to re-learn my rotations again each patch if the tier bonus keeps changing the rotation. I already have my hands full with a PVP spec, 2 PVE specs (SV/BM depending on fight) and trying to be good at all. It's enough when Blizzard changes things around in the priority because its constantly changing things like buffing or nerfing talents/abilities.

There are games out there, who does not inherit balancing in the last 8 month (swtor *cough*) and players would actually be pleased to see them.. I'm happy with the balancing activities blizzard does try to maintain. Also i've to second rotation changes trough set-boni =)

There are games out there, who does not inherit balancing in the last 8 month (swtor *cough*) and players would actually be pleased to see them.. I'm happy with the balancing activities blizzard does try to maintain. Also i've to second rotation changes trough set-boni =)

Oh hi,
I am patch 5.0 and I am here to fuck the MM spec up! But wait, there is more! My brother 5.2 has just arrived and is ready to screw over MM even more, by buffing BM and SV even more with these fantastic tier15 bonuses.
RIP MM

Got some mixed feelings about the hawk casting something instead of melee attacks. On one hand I'm very happy things like target switching aren't much of an issue. But I don't know how I feel about some stationary turret you can't move. I think that will be more of an annoyance when I'm killing rares and trying to pull said rare away from regular mobs so I don't have to kill everything near it. But that's outside raids anyway.

Quite disappointed how low the PPM both effects have though. Looks like we won't see the bonuses that often, and this becomes even more of a problem if the pet procs when a boss goes immune or something.

Oh hi,
I am patch 5.0 and I am here to fuck the MM spec up! But wait, there is more! My brother 5.2 has just arrived and is ready to screw over MM even more, by buffing BM and SV even more with these fantastic tier15 bonuses.
RIP MM

Could say the same thing but replace MM with BM and replace 5.0 and 5.2 with 3.1 to 4.3

Im actually kinda of happy that the Thunderhawks will cast a ranged ability and not run up and try to melee.

Oh hi,
I am patch 5.0 and I am here to fuck the MM spec up! But wait, there is more! My brother 5.2 has just arrived and is ready to screw over MM even more, by buffing BM and SV even more with these fantastic tier15 bonuses.
RIP MM

I didn't play my Hunter much during Wotlk, but I'm pretty sure after the 3.0.8 BM Nerf, MM became top. They continued to top until the end of wotlk. Something in T11 with Survival/MM idk. T12 was MM all the way. So MM dominated most-ish of the last two expansions. Along with being "the pvp spec" for what seems to be most of WoW's span, and after a quick "Arena Junkies" scroll, a majority of the Hunters are still MM for PVP.